Eureka! 1981 ★ "Lost" Elementary Physics and Mechanics Classes

TV Ontario 1981

https://thetvdb.com/series/eureka-1981/allseasons/official

Eureka! Was a cleverly-designed set of cartoons intended to teach physics. A total of 30 adventures surrounded a clever, long-nosed man in a white suit and distinctive hat.


Season One had the First Unit, which was the First Ten Lessons long. Season Two had the subsequent Units, Two through Six, within the Second Twenty Lessons - Totaling 30 Lessons for all Six Units, and Both Seasons.

Among the awards Eureka! has received:
• Best Science & Math Video, Birmingham International Educational Film Festival
• GOLD PLAQUE, American Film Festival
• NAEB Graphic & Design Award

TVO no longer provides videotapes of Eureka! for school audiences - but they did for Decades! It was a VERY popular series. The rights have expired and it has been lost to time - and YouTube.


I guess I should share this ... it is one of the personal favorites of my collection. Who knew that nutty theme song could be an "Ear Worm" ... With a Coo-Coo Clock Striking One, and a Rubber Ducky screaming for help, near the end of it? Go Figure.

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Episode Descriptions:
Eureka 01 Inertia

Eureka 02 Mass
This program introduces the kilogram as a way to measure the mass of an object, and proves that small things can be more massive than large things.

Eureka 03 Speed
Expert ball-handling proves force varies with mass and speed.

Eureka 04 Acceleration (1)
Force varies with mass and rate of change of speed. It's much easier to stop a slow-moving cannonball than a rapid tennis ball.

Eureka 05 Acceleration (2)
It takes only a few seconds for something to accelerate to a max speed. This is demonstrated with a vintage locomotive.

Eureka 06 Gravity
What is gravity? Through the fictional story of Newton's apple, we learn about gravity and shed some light on weight.

Eureka 07 Weight vs. Mass
Physics has to be specific in distinguishing weight from mass. This is why physicists measure weight in newtons.

Eureka 08 Work
How much work are you doing? Whatever the force you apply is measured in newton/meters or joules, after James P. Joule.

Eureka 09 Kinetic Energy
The physics of billiard balls begins the first of two programs on energy itself.

Eureka 10 Potential Energy
David and Goliath characters demonstrate how potential energy differs from kinetic energy.
Eureka 11 The Inclined Plane
How can someone lift a very heavy load? If one could slice the load into pieces, that would trade increased distance for decreased effort. But since one can't break things because they are so heavy, the inclined plane comes into play.

Eureka 12 The Lever
A teeter-totter is the perfect demonstration of the lever, particularly if you are trying to ride a teeter-totter with someone heavier than you. Such is the Principle of the Lever.

Eureka 13 Mechanical Advantage and Friction
Two professors compete to see who can lift a book with a lesser amount of force. The professor who uses a lever is more efficient than the inclined plane, once we factor in a basic double-edged sword called friction.

Eureka 14 The Screw And The Wheel
All machines in the world can be traced to just two: the inclined plane and the lever. Even the wheel is just a circular lever whose fulcrum has become an axle. The screw? It's just a spiraling inclined plane.

Eureka 15 The Pulley
Jack and Jill went up the hill and found a problem: how can they pull a pail of water from the bottom of a well? In this expanded nursery story, we find there is more to a pulley and its mechanical advantage than meets the eye.
Eureka 16 Molecules in Solids
The first of six shows on heat and temperature, introduces molecules. Even though a solid object looks motionless, its molecules move back and forth in a lattice-work dance.

Eureka 17 Molecules in Liquids
This episode sacrifices a chocolate rabbit on a hot day to illustrate the movement of molecules in liquids.

Eureka 18 Evaporation and Condensation
No end of problems await the man who keeps fish for pets. Evaporation forces one to refill the tank. And he who thinks he can outsmart water vapor by keeping his fish in a refrigerated water tank, falls prey to Nature's countermeasure: condensation.

Eureka 19 Expansion and Contraction
This lecture-packed show compares a balloon to a bunch of angry wasps to explain why gases expand and contract. It goes further than that. The expansion process also affects matter when it changes from one state to another.

Eureka 20 Measuring Temperature
Given three bathtubs of varying temperature, the star of the show ""blunts"" his feet so that they can't tell temperature. Sure they can't. The human body can only tell changes in temperature in comparison to what it had been used to. It's up to an independent device: a thermometer and the scale devised by Anders Celsius.

Eureka 21 Temperature vs. Heat
What is better to warm up a kiddie pool: a teacup of boiling water (100° Celsius) or a bucket of water at 50° Celsius? The answer tells you the difference between temperature and heat.
Eureka 22 Atoms
There's more to matter than the molecules we had spent discussing in the previous six shows. This fourth unit produces that first look at atoms.

Eureka 23 Electrons
An atom is made of mostly empty space. The electrons in an atom zoom around at fantastic speeds to create existence out of something that is mostly nothingness (at the atomic level).

Eureka 24 Conduction
All objects conduct heat, of course, but get a look at objects from the atomic level and you'll see why some objects conduct heat faster than others.
Eureka 25 Volume and Density
To set up audiences for The Convection of Heat, this question is posed: how can you fit eight junky cars into a small space?

Eureka 26 Buoyancy
How come an anchor is easier to lift if it's in the water than in open air? It lies in the density of an object versus a certain quantity of water.

Eureka 27 Convection
Now that the Principle of Buoyancy is understood, one can fully grasp The Convection of Heat. This is demonstrated with a furnace not being in the attic of a house.
Eureka 28 Heat as Energy
An animated Count Rumford demonstrates, for the first time, how heat can be used to produce energy. The show converts a Calorie as the amount produced from 4200 joules of work.

Eureka 29 Radiation Waves
Why does somebody stand in the shade on a hot day? This show introduces the third method by which heat can be transferred: radiation.

Eureka 30 The Radiation Spectrum
Is it just your imagination that you are warmer when you wear dark clothes over white clothes? That actually sets off a revelation on what color really is.

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